Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinowicz
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| Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinowicz | ||
|---|---|---|
| Munkaczer Rebbe | ||
| Rabbi Baruch Rabinowicz (right) in Mukacevo, 1939 | ||
| Term | 1937 – 1946 | |
| Full name | Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinowicz | |
| Born | 1913 | |
| Died | 1999 | |
| Israel | ||
| Buried | Petah Tikva, Israel | |
| Dynasty | Munkacz | |
| Predecessor | Chaim Elazar Spira | |
| Successor | Moshe Leib Rabinovich | |
| Father | Noson Dovid Rabinowicz of Parczew | |
| Mother | Yitta Spira of Stryzow | |
| Wife1 | Chaya Frima Rivka daughter of Chaim Elazar Spira | |
| Issue1 | Tzvi Rabinovich Chaim Elazar Rabinovich Moshe Leib Rabinovich Yitzchok Yakov Rabinovich Yita Willamowsky |
|
| Wife 2 | Yehudis Wallhaus | |
| Issue 2 | L'via Grossman Yair Rabinovich |
|
Rabbi Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinowicz, (1913-1999), also known as Reb Burechl, was born into a distinguished chasidic dynasty, and succeeded to the title Munkaczer Rebbe. He renounced this position following the turmoil of World War II.
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[edit] Early years
Boruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel was born in Poland in 1913 to his parents, Rabbi Noson Dovid Rabinowicz (1868-1930), the Partzever Rebbe, and Yitta Spira. His father was the eldest son of Reb Yaakov Yitzchak of Biala (1847-1905). His mother was the daughter of Reb Moshe Leib Spira of Stryzow (1850-1916), of the Munkatch dynasty.
[edit] Marriage
In 1933 Reb Boruch married Frima Chaya Rivka, the only daughter of his mother's first cousin Reb Chaim Elazar Spira (1872-1937), Munkacser Rebbe and Chief Rabbi of Munkacs. This union set him on course to succeed his father-in-law as rabbi and 'Admor' of Munkacs. His wedding – attended by some 30,000 guests - was one of the grandest and most celebrated chasidic weddings of the era that immediately preceded World War II, and film footage of the wedding, shot by news teams who were there to record the event, was seen widely across the world.
[edit] Rabbi of Munkacs
Reb Boruch's elevation to the position as rov and rebbe of Munkacs in 1937 following the death of his father-in-law was rudely disrupted by the beginning of the war, when he was unceremoniously deported to Poland. He was miraculously released soon afterwards and he promptly moved with his family from Munkacs to Budapest, where he managed to obtain visas and escape to Palestine. There he endeavoured to rebuild his shattered life but, as well as having to deal with the tragedy of the Holocaust and the deaths and disruption it had caused, his wife - always of frail health - died in April 1945.
[edit] Post-war
In 1946 Reb Boruch tried and failed to become the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, and shortly thereafter he moved to São Paulo, Brazil, together with his second wife, in this way totally cutting himself off from his surviving chasidim and from his position as head of one of pre-war Hungary's pre-eminent chasidic dynasties. In addition, as a result of a change of theological direction, Reb Boruch had become sympathetic to Zionism and the State of Israel, concepts that had been anathema to his father-in-law and most of pre-War Hungarian orthodoxy. The Munkatcher chasidim who had survived the war were devastated by his refusal to lead them and many of them never forgave him for turning his back on them and for diverging so dramatically from the philosophy espoused by his esteemed father-in-law.
Reb Boruch returned to Israel in 1963 to become Chief Rabbi of Holon. He later moved to Petah Tikva where he headed a small Beis Hamedrash until his death in 1999. His sons, Reb Moshe Leib Rabinovich is the Rebbe of Munkacs and resides in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, NY, and Reb Yaakov is the Rebbe of Dinov in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, NY.
Reb Boruch was a great scholar of Talmud and halacha and his encyclopedic knowledge of traditional Jewish sources was widely reputed. In addition to this he was also a gifted orator, although his relative obscurity and personal desire to remain out of the limelight meant that he rarely spoke outside of his own immediate vicinity. In 1997, he published his works entitled Divrei Nevonim and Binat Nevonim.
